It's hard to keep the American people engaged with foreign affairs: notoriously "isolationist," we just can't stay interested in the various overseas "threats" our rulers would have us in a panic over. While Al Qaeda was Washington's biggest "success" in this regard – the 9/11 attacks really got everyone's attention and managed to keep Americans focused on the absolute necessity of gutting our Constitution and rampaging over half the earth – that was some thirteen year ago. The assassination of Osama bin Laden, and two drawn-out and absolutely disastrous wars – both ending in what looks dismayingly like defeat – have pretty much exhausted everyone's patience. The "war on terrorism" launched by George W. Bush with such dramatic fanfare was in danger of petering out, ending not with a bang – or a victory – but without even any acknowledgment on the part of our wise rulers that it was a) over, and b) a horrific failure.